Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) articles from March 2007

Futures (Cedar Falls, IA) archives from March 2007

Bears down?(EDITOR'S NOTE)
March 1, 2007... Apparently, 2006 wasn't a year for bears on the stock market or for that matter, the football field. Stock indexes were up for the year across the board Despite the continued violence in Iraq and government overspending, the economy seems to...

One big happy family? TSE gets several suitors.(Trendlines)
March 1, 2007... In late January, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) announced they would be working together on trading technology, product development, cross-marketing and regulatory cooperation as both exchanges continue to...

Xpedited option: optionsXpressTrade?(Trendlines)
March 1, 2007... Consolidation and access to multiple asset classes is all the rage at the exchanges and may prove to be the next big thing at the brokerage level. In late January, optionsXpress Holdings Inc., owner of equity options brokerage firm...

Fast start! Electronic + softs = hot.(Trendlines)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... For markets that were not even being considered for electronic trading one year ago, the New York Board of Trade's (Nybot) softs complex have taken to electronic trading in a big way. The entire complex traded 13,164 contracts, approximately...

Numbers game: new Refco indictments.(Trendlines)
March 1, 2007... Former Refco principal Tone N. Grant has been indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, to make material misstatements to auditors, to make false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange...

Expanding reach: State Street buys FX firm.(Trendlines)
March 1, 2007... State Street, a Boston financial services company, will purchase independently-owned, New-York based online foreign exchange trading platform Currenex for approximately $564 million, which will be paid in cash. State Street will combine...

Post-merger roster: CME/CBOT pick teams.(Trendlines)
March 1, 2007... The period following a merger announcement and its closing is always a nervous one as decisions are made regarding what management positions will remain and who will leave as part of the efficiencies gained from the merger. CME and CBOT...

Paper tiger? CFTC makes law; kinda.(Trendlines)
March 1, 2007... The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in February adopted final acceptable practices for minimizing conflicts of interest for designated contract markets (exchanges). The practices, which are voluntary, provide guidance for exchanges...

Chartview: record earnings in 2006.(Trendlines)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... It was a fat year for U.S. futures exchanges and shareholders are grinning, with CME Holdings Inc., Chicago Board of Trade Holdings Inc. (CBOT) and New York Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (Nymex) all posting record earnings and volumes. The...

The greening of trading; Carbon trading: plenty of risk!(Trendlines)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... A slew of new reports bodes well for the future of carbon trading in the United States--beginning with last year's volume figures on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE). Both saw volumes surge; and...

German, French MiFID plans.(International News)(Markets in Financial Instruments Directive)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... The European Union's second and third largest securities exchanges say they're ready for MiFid, which kicks in on Nov. 1 and will give securities firms the right to execute securities transactions on their own internal trading platforms. Both...

Squabble over Milan Exchange.(International News)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi has joined the chorus of financial voices calling on Borsa Italiana boss Massimo Capuano to abandon his plan of keeping the Milan Exchange a solitary platform on a continent of alliances and merged entities....

Indians add Java.(International News)
March 1, 2007... The Multi Commodity Exchange of India has added another global product, teaming up with Euronext.Liffe to launch mini-futures on robusta coffee. The new contract is one-fifth the size of the Euronext.Liffe contract but is deliverable in India.

China shanghais foreign futures participation?(International News)
March 1, 2007... China's Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) reiterated its earlier intent to launch financial futures products this year, but has backtracked from plans to open the markets to outsiders, citing fears of market manipulation, according to...

Russell launches benchmark.(International News)
March 1, 2007... Russell Investment Group will launch a family of global stock indexes headed by a benchmark that covers 98% of the world's investable equity through more than 10,000 stocks in 63 countries. No investment vehicles pegged to the Russell Global...

Everybody wants some.(International News)
March 1, 2007... After GFI Group Inc. and ICAP plc acquired a minority stake in the Clearing Corporation (CCorp.), Morgan Stanley purchased nearly 9% of the company for $4.4 million. The shares were purchased at the Refco Inc. bankruptcy auction. A spokesperson...

Downey to lead OneChicago.(Trading Places)(appointment of David G. Downey)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... David G. Downey has been named CEO of OneChicago. Previously he was with Interactive Brokers, Timber Hill LLC and was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange. "Single stock futures are a viable tool," he says....

Morgan Stanley.(Trading Places)
March 1, 2007... Joel Press has joined Morgan Stanley as a managing director. Previously he was head of the global hedge fund practice at Ernst & Young.

Fortis.(Trading Places)
March 1, 2007... Michael Hofmann has joined Fortis as managing director of brokerage, clearing and custody, Frankfurt branch.

Gain Capital.(Trading Places)
March 1, 2007... Peter Quick has joined the board at Gain Capital. Previously he was president of the American Stock Exchange, and ran his own brokerage firm, Quick & Reilly.

Options Clearing Corporation.(Trading Places)
March 1, 2007... The Options Industry Council has named Susan Milligan executive director. Previously she was senior vice president and special council at the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC).

Eurex.(Trading Places)
March 1, 2007... Heike Eckert has been promoted to manage Eurex in the United States as head of the offices in Chicago and New York. Previously she managed the Chicago office.

OCC.(Trading Places)
March 1, 2007... The OCC has named Michael Walinskas senior vice president of risk management and membership.

Philadelphia Stock Exchange.(Trading Places)
March 1, 2007... Mark Schepps was promoted to vice president and chief enforcement counsel at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

Orc Software.(Trading Places)
March 1, 2007... Anders Berg was named financial officer of Orc Software. Previously he was vice president, head of finance at Investor AB.

Societe Generale.(Trading Places)
March 1, 2007... Societe Generale has named Jim Allred head of U.S. oil & gas client coverage. Previously he was vice president and treasurer of Link Energy LLC.

Georgia firm charged with fraud.(Managed Money Review)
March 1, 2007... The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in January charged Renaissance Asset management, a Roswell, Georgia-based CTA and commodity pool operator, and its chief operation officer Anthony Ramunno with commodity pool fraud. One week...

Russell 2000 or T-1000?(financial futures)
March 1, 2007... Like the android assassin, the Russell 2000 appears to be unstoppable, marching from 675 in June, past 825 in mid January. "This market is making all-time highs over and over," says Dave Toth, technical strategist for Myfuturesonline.com, and...

Should we talk about the weather?(Hot Commodities)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... Heating oil prices had taken a beating, falling from $1.90 per gallon in early December to less than $1.50 in mid January. But that was before the cold snap that has punished the Midwest with weeks of sub freezing temperatures, and the heavy...

Steak and shake.(forecasting cattle market and prices)(Brief article)
March 1, 2007... In the live cattle market, February is not known for boisterous demand, according to Daniel L. Bluntzer, director of research at Frontier Risk Management LLC. But seven weeks of snow, ice and record low temperatures in the Plains has caused...

Options strategy.(stock options)(Column)
March 1, 2007... Question: You are up huge, you want more but you don't want to risk giving it all back. What do you do? Answer: Convert a winning long position into a bull call spread. Watching the gains from a winning trade evaporate and turn into a...

Things could get wild: 2007 equity outlook; Stocks posted an impressive rally in the second half of 2006 despite numerous warning flags. The market climbed a wall of worry, ignoring a weak dollar, twin deficits, a declining housing market and some long-term bearish cyclical indicators while producing solid returns. Will the market continue to soar?(MARKETS)
March 1, 2007... This will be a year of unprecedented volatility and opportunity for equity markets. Everything that can happen will happen and traders must be prepared for the worst of times and hope for the best. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will...

Tech talk: a good year for schizophrenics?(MARKETS)
March 1, 2007... The year 2007 may hold a meaningful high and a meaningful low. The stock market has gone up without as much as a 10% correction since March 2003--which is a record. The implication is that a correction is seriously overdue. Technical...

Is corn the new crude?(Market Strategy)
March 1, 2007... After last fall's dramatic, 75% improvement in value, the corn market began 2007 under pressure about concerns of disinflation from sharply lower energy prices and fears of reallocation from index funds. The result was heavy liquidation selling...

Long term position trading.(Forex Trader)
March 1, 2007... Many traders who have been on the wrong side of a trade have often observed that given a bit more time or more capital, a losing position would have become profitable. Is this the lament of every trader who is wrong? Or is there some hidden...

Alpha/beta: is it the dog or the tail? By measuring alpha and beta using a relatively simple spreadsheet program we can utilize this typically long-term analysis to anticipate shorter-term price breakouts and create strategies to profit from them.(EQUITY TRADING TECHNIQUES)
March 1, 2007... Alpha and beta are two important measures of a security's performance. They relate to the variability of other assets in the portfolio or the index of which the security is a part. For example, XOM is part of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones...

Know when to get out! Trading is riddled with cliches such as "cut your losses short and let your winners ride." What does it really means to cut your losses short and how do you quantify it?(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
March 1, 2007... There is little question among seasoned speculators that exits are more important than entries. All of us have looked back on our trading history, or someone else's experience, and rued the day when an exit transaction was made too early. ...

Measuring exit strategy performance: using standard measures of system performance we can determine how to combine various classes of trade exits to devise the best overall exit strategy logic.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
March 1, 2007... To understand which elements of your system perform well under certain circumstances, you first need an objective measure of system performance. Although there are several measures that you can use to judge system performance, a single...

All in the family: nominal yields on 10-year Treasury note futures move along with the yields on U.S. Treasury securities, but subtle differences between the two yields can help predict price changes in Eurodollar futures contracts.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
March 1, 2007... The yields on Treasury note futures, Eurodollar futures and U.S. T-bonds and notes are tightly connected through processes of hedging and arbitrage. It should come as little surprise, then, that the analysis of two of these can be used to...

Trading with ratio spreads: ratio spreads offer the opportunity to limit losses in exchange for a limited gain potential, but they also involve significant risk in certain market conditions. Once you understand when these multi-legged trades work best, you can take advantage of the edge they offer.(TRADING TECHNIQUES)
March 1, 2007... Spreads are highly effective means of trading. Vertical spreads, calendar spreads, diagonal spreads, butterfly spreads, condor spreads, etc., all have a unique purpose for particular market situations. Here, we will look at the construction and...

RealTick 8.5.(Software Review)
March 1, 2007... RealTick 8.5 Townsend Analytics, Ltd. 100 South Wacker Drive, Suite 2040 Chicago, IL 60606 (800) 827.0141; (312) 621.0141 OVERALL RATING: Excellent LEVEL: Products range from beginner to advanced. PRICING: Varies...

Options on futures: at the tipping point? While equity options are an almost exclusively electronic market, options on futures are among the main reasons that open outcry futures pits still exist, but that may be changing.(FUTURES 101)
March 1, 2007... Back in the '90s, a confluence of factors made self-directed online trading possible. Driven by a booming economy and concerns about retirement, a contingent of baby boomers, armed with ever cheaper and ever better computing power and internet...

Housing contracts hitting the market.(Online Trading)
March 1, 2007... Economic reports show that housing prices and sales are falling for the first time in many years. Led by a large decline in the West, sales of U.S. existing homes fell 0.8% in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.22 million units,...

Weathering the storm: top traders of 2006; Last year was a volatile one in the markets, but traders who were diversified, nimble and understood the intricacies of their markets were well situated to take advantage of the sometimes violent moves. Here are some of those top performers.(MANAGED MONEY)(Cover story)
March 1, 2007... Many experienced long-term trend followers were looking forward to 2006. They were hoping to see a return to market dislocations they could take advantage of after a couple of difficult years for trend followers. While 2006 looked promising in...

Shopping for the right ETF: ETFs are fast becoming the investment tool of traders and the public. Adapted from his book, Getting Started in Exchange Traded Funds, Todd Lofton outlines the various asset classes of ETFs.(exchange-traded funds)
March 1, 2007... With the plethora of exchange traded funds (ETF), it's hard to determine which one is right for you. Here is a break down of the various asset classes available to today's trader and investor and the advantages of each. (For further information...

2006 public funds returns (through December).(Funds Review)(Statistical table)
March 1, 2007... Unit Starting value Change Trading Date unit through for Name of fund advisor(s) ...

Contract dates.(Dateline)(Calendar)
March 1, 2007... 1 LTD: BM & F Alcohol OF, CME Feb Milk F,OF, Feb Mid-sized milk OF. [TABLE OMITTED] 2 LTD: CME Pork bellies, frozen OF, Feb Weather F, Live cattle OF, Pork bellies, frozen OF, Nybot Apr Cocoa OF. 5 LTD: CBOT Ethanol F,...

Events coming up.
March 1, 2007... Call the numbers listed for more information. For other seminars. see the classifieds on pages 77-81. ETF Evolution 2007. MARCH 5-7. 3 West Club, Midtown, New York City. www.iqpc.com/financelQ. (800) 882-8684; e-mail: info@iqpc.com. ...

Aref Karim: allocating profits.(Quality Capital Management )
March 1, 2007... London-based Quality Capital Management has a hybrid trading strategy that can follow trends but also avoids the sharp reversals that often accompany them. Aref Karim, QCM managing director and CEO, says that the underlying algorithm behind his...